List of 2024 Award Winners from Canadian Association of Law Libraries

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries held its 2024 annual conference in Montreal in late June.

At each conference, the Association also announces the winners of its numerous awards.

Here are the winners for 2024:

Kim Clarke, CALL Research Grant

The CALL/ACBD Research Grant was established in 1996 to provide members with financial assistance to carry out research in areas of interest to members and to the association. The Committee to Promote Research manages the grant process, receiving and evaluating applications and making recommendations to the Executive Board for award of the Research Grant. Submissions for the 2025 CALL Research Grant are due February 24, 2025.

Kim Clarke was the recipient of the 2024 CALL Research Grant for her project entitled “Reliance on Original Research at the Alberta Court of Appeal.” Kim’s research will analyze the volume of original research the Alberta Court of Appeal relies on in their decisions as compared to the case law cited by the parties in their factums. American Researchers have explored this and related citation issues and this would bring similar research to a Canadian appeals court. This research will be of interest to practitioners and future law clerks and all those interested in legal research generally.

Emily Groper, Canadian Law Library Review Featured Article Award

The CALL/ACBD award of $500 may be given annually to the author of a feature length article published in the Canadian Law Library Review / Revue canadienne des bibliothèques de droit.

The 2024 Award goes to Emily Groper for “Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property: AI-Driven Drug Discovery and the Challenges It Poses to the Canadian Patent System.” This article was published in volume 48, issue 3 of the CLLR. You can find this article in the CLLR archive on CanLII.

Danielle Noonan, Canadian Law Library Review Student Article Award

The CALL/ACBD award of $250 may be given annually to the student author of an article published in the Canadian Law Library Review / Revue canadienne des bibliothèques de droit.

The 2024 Award goes to Danielle Noonan for “Readers’ Advisory Services in Canadian Prisons.” This article was published in volume 48, issue 1 of the CLLR. You can find this article in the CLLR archive on CanLII.

Emma Scott, Diana M. Priestly Memorial Scholarship

Established in honour of the late Diana M. Priestly, a distinguished Canadian law librarian, and in recognition of her distinctive contribution to Law Librarianship, the Scholarship is intended to support professional development in the field and is awarded to a student pursuing their education in a combination of law and library science. Applications for the next Diana M. Priestly Memorial Scholarship are due February 1, 2025.

Emma Scott is soon to finish her MLIS degree from the University of Western Ontario, and recently completed her co-op as Student Law Librarian at the Lederman Law Library at Queen’s University. She is excited to pursue law librarianship following her graduation, and has already contributed to the profession and our association through presenting “Increasing the Prominence of Indigenous Legal Orders in Library Collections” alongside her Queen’s colleagues at this year’s CALL/ACBD conference.

Eunice Beeson Memorial Professional Development Fund

The Eunice Beeson Memorial Professional Development Fund was established to assist CALL/ACBD members who wish to attend the Annual Conference but, for financial reasons, are unable to do so. It commemorates Eunice Beeson’s considerable contributions to the foundation of CALL/ACBD. Applications for the 2025 CALL/ACBD conference will be due in the spring.

This year, four CALL/ACBD members were awarded bursaries to support their attendance at the Conference in Montreal.

Nathalie Léonard, Gisèle Laprise Prize

The Gisèle Laprise Prize was generously established by Thomson Reuters, and has been enlarged by Gisèle's family. This award recognizes an outstanding contribution to an understanding and appreciation of the civil and common law systems in Canada. The contribution may be in the form of an article, book, course, research, activities/advocacy or a body of work, and should build bridges and understanding between the Common Law and the Civil Law. Nominations for the next Gisèle Laprise Prize are due on April 1, 2025.

Nathalie Léonard was awarded the Gisèle Laprise Prize in recognition of her body of work in the profession. Of note is Nathalie’s long-standing contribution to the teaching of the Civil and Common Law systems at the Brian Dickson Law Library at the University of Ottawa, and her many contributions to CALL/ACBD, particularly the Canadian Law Library Review.

Hannah Rosborough and Eve Leung, James D. Lang Memorial Scholarship

This scholarship, supported by Thomson Reuters, is designed to support attendance at a continuing education program, be it a workshop, certificate program or other similar activity deemed appropriate by the CALL/ACBD Scholarships and Awards Committee. Applications for James D. Lang Scholarships are considered twice yearly, with a February 1 and August 1 deadline.

Hannah Rosborough was the recipient of the August 2023 James D. Lang Memorial Scholarship, to assist with her attendance at the OsgoodePD’s Professional LLM in Intellectual Property Law. Eve Leung was the recipient of the February 2024 Scholarship, which has assisted with her attendance at the Executive MBA program at the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Tim Knight, Michael Silverstein Prize

An annual monetary award of $1,500 sponsored by Thomson Reuters, the Michael Silverstein Prize recognizes an outstanding contribution to enhancing understanding, analysis and appreciation of primary law and legal taxonomy. The contribution may be in the form of an article, book, course, research, activities/advocacy or a body of work. Nominations for the next Michael Silverstein Prize are due on April 1, 2025.

Tim Knight received the Michael Silverstein Prize for his outstanding and long-standing contribution as a member of CALL/ACBD to enhancing understanding, analysis and appreciation of legal taxonomy. This award encompasses Tim's career contributions, in particular his work in spear-heading the KF Modified classification system for Canadian legal materials.